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INSIDE FRANCE

Inside France: English skills, political spats and trampolines

From childish political spats to freak weather, via trampolines and the very cute accent of a certain ex president, our weekly newsletter Inside France looks at what we have been talking about in France this week.

Published: 29 October 2022 12:06 CEST
Inside France: English skills, political spats and trampolines
Autumn sunshine at Wineck chateau in Katzenthal, eastern France. Photo by PATRICK HERTZOG / AFP

Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. Members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.

When the results came in for the parliamentary elections in June – revealing that Macron’s centrist alliance remained the biggest group in parliament but lost their overall majority – some optimistically predicted that this would usher in a new era of more consensual politics and lofty, platonic debates in the Assemblée nationale.

And if anyone was still in any lingering doubt, I think this week has finally killed off that notion.

In a single week we saw the government repeatedly resorting to the constitutional tool known as Article 49.3 to ram their budgets through a blocked parliament, and the various opposition groups staging no less than three no-confidence votes in a single evening. None of them passed, but the one that came the closest saw the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) joining with the leftist alliance Nupes.

In response, finance minister Bruno Le Maire tweeted this extremely grown-up response.

While Macron supporters rushed to push the ‘far-left, far-right, they’re all the same’ line, others pointed out that Le Maire himself – along with several other members of the current government – had also voted alongside far-right MPs in a motion of no-confidence against François Hollande’s government, way back in 2015. 

Highbrow debate indeed. 

Speaking skills

Taking of Hollande, I enjoyed listening to him on the podcast The Rest is Politics, hosted by the British former Labour spin doctor Alistair Campbell and former Conservative MP Rory Stewart.

Unlike many of the current cabinet, Hollande is rarely heard speaking English in public, but he’s apparently been having lots of lessons since his presidency ended in 2017 and he’s now taken the big step of doing a podcast in English. 

It’s a wide-ranging interview taking in lots of topics (including a very blunt assessment of Barack Obama), with a nice ending when Campbell (a fluent French-speaker) asked him a question in French, allowing Hollande to let his eloquence flow. 

Our Talking France podcast is currently acting like a French schoolchild and having a two-week holiday, but we will be back November 10th – catch up with our back catalogue HERE.

Lovely weather?

It’s been hard to get away from talking about the weather this week, as France basked in temperatures of up to 31C. Even here in Paris it got up to 24C, and although sitting typing this with the window open, wearing a T-shirt is undoubtedly very pleasant, it’s hard to get away from the fact that these are not normal conditions for October.

In fact 2022 has been a record-breaking year all round in France, and definitely not in a good way as soaring temperatures mean ongoing drought (30 areas are still on tight drought restrictions) and failed crops. Global climate plans have rarely felt so urgent.

Soothing moment of the week

If you feel the need of a couple of minutes of calm, this staircase and trampoline route from the famous French dancer Yoann Bourgeois is beautiful and strangely soothing to watch.

Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. Members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.

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INSIDE FRANCE

Inside France: Political farce, far-right fears and sharks under Paris

This week in France has been heavily focused on politics due to the surprise election, from the soap opera and the memes of the right-wing parties to grumpy faces among the Macronists, plus some light relief in the form of the weird stuff underneath Paris.

Published: 15 June 2024 11:41 CEST
Inside France: Political farce, far-right fears and sharks under Paris

Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.

Ciotti chuckles

Anyone who says that the French have no sense of humour has clearly not spent any time on French social media this week as the jokes and memes came thick and fast in response to the ridiculous election shenanigans of the once-mighty right-wing Les Républicains party.

You can find the full details here but to cut a long story short, party leader Eric Ciotti announced an election alliance with the far-right, his fellow party bigwigs were horrified and attempted to expel him, Ciotti locked himself inside the party HQ and refused to allow anyone in, leaders held their meeting elsewhere and voted to expel him from the party, Ciotti refused to accept their verdict and posted a video of him showing up at work as normal the following day, insisting he was still in charge.

The whole thing was a gift for anyone with a Twitter account and a sense of humour. 

Sense of humour

The whole idea that ‘the French aren’t funny’ is an oddly enduring trope. I think it’s to do with the fact that French humour is often highly referential, making it hard for foreigners to get if they don’t understand the references.

READ ALSO 5 tips for understanding French humour and jokes

Far right

Funny as the whole Ciotti episode was, it didn’t quite distract from the widespread horror in France at the prospect of a far-right government, and bafflement over Emmanuel Macron’s high-stakes election gamble.

His announcement on Sunday night of a snap election took the country and the media entirely by surprise and seemed to catch plenty of his own party members off guard too.

The election is a gamble – un pari – Macron is banking on the country to reject the far-right at the polls and hand his party back an absolute majority in parliament. This could happen, or Marine Le Pen’s party could win and Macron would then go down in history as the man who handed the keys of government to the far-right. Or – and most analysts think this is the most likely scenario – no party could win an absolute majority and the parliament could be plunged into an even more messy deadlock.

READ ALSO What do the snap elections mean for France?

One of the most outspoken critics has been Gabriel Attal, the 35-year-old prime minister often described as a Macron protege. This photo of him with a face like thunder has become another meme, embodying all those who think that this election is a very bad idea. 

Talking France

We of course talk about the elections in a special episode of the Talking France podcast – listen here. During the election period we will be releasing the podcast on Mondays, and we will also be doing a bi-weekly election breakdown for anyone who wants to stay in touch with the latest – sign up here.

Sharknado

And if you want something to help you switch off from all the politics, I highly recommend the new Netflix film Sous la Seine (Under Paris). Not because it’s good – it’s not, in fact it’s terrible but it’s so bad that it’s actually hilarious. 

One thing that you might write off as dramatic licence is the idea of an enormous underground lake beneath Paris – but this is actually true. In fact, there’s a lot weird shit under Paris . . .

Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.

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